Raspberry Pie: The Food of The Gods

I’m going to ask you a couple of questions and I want you to answer me honestly. The only rule is that your answer must be “raspberry.” And don’t forget to answer honestly! I can take it! Ready?

What is your favorite fruit?

What is the one most perfect food in the world?

What kind of pie could you absolutely not live without?

What color lipstick are you wearing?

Well, isn’t that STRANGE? I answered raspberry to all the above questions, too! We must be soul mates or something! (I’m not actually wearing any lipstick. But, if I was, the name would definitely be “Raspberry.” I swear!)

What’s that? You love raspberries, but you don’t know how to make raspberry pie? You poor, poor thing! Let me show you the way.

You’re going to start out with a quart of fresh raspberries OR if you are like me and your grocery store is being a complete jerk you’ll just have to use frozen. Frozen raspberries aren’t quite as good as fresh, but they’ll do. I promise. If you do use frozen, you’ll need between two and three 12oz. bags.

Let the frozen berries thaw for a bit and then dump on about 1 to 1 1/4 cups of sugar, depending on the tartness of your berries. Add in 8 teaspoons of cornstarch, 2 tablespoons of quick cooking tapioca, and between 4 and 6 tablespoons of water, depending on how wet your berries are.

Now go ahead and stir it all up.

Okay, now grab a spoon and dig in! Eat them all! Every last one! Then cry for a bit, go fix your mascara, and head to the store to buy more berries. We’re making a pie, dang it!

If you are one of those LAZY people you can go right ahead and use a store bought pie crust. Go ahead. I won’t judge you. If you are SERIOUS about your pie, then use your favorite double crust recipe. I’ll just wait right here until you get done whipping that up.

Oh, and remember how I said I wouldn’t judge you for using a store bought crust? Yes, well. Please don’t judge me either. Pillsbury makes a better pie crust than me and that’s just the way it is. Let it go, okay?

Dump your berry mixture into the pie shell and, oh, did I forget to mention that you should preheat your oven to 425 degrees? Yes, well. We better do that now.

Before you put your top crust on, be sure to add some butter. Everything is better with butter right? I was feeling all diet-y and didn’t use the 4 tablespoons the recipe calls for. I used about 2-3 tablespoons, but whatever. You can’t tell the difference in the pie and I made up for those missing calories by eating butter straight out of the dish later.

Don’t be like me and cut your little slits totally off center. It just ruins the whole pie baking experience. Also? Don’t feel bad if the edges of your crust aren’t very pretty. Mine aren’t either.

Cover the edges of the pie crust with foil (or you can use one of these if you have one. I don’t. I hope to one day have the extra $4.00 required to purchase one.) and pop it into your oven. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees and then turn your oven down to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes.

Let your pie cool for, well, a real long time. If you cut into it when it’s warm it’ll be all runny and thin and then you won’t be able to take pretty pictures of the finished product. Trust me. I know.

This is about 3 hours after coming out of the oven and spending an hour or so in the fridge. It’s perfect. Cold and thick and yummy and full of that raspberry goodness.

Now go make some raspberry pie! And that’s an order.

Raspberry Pie

• 1 quart fresh raspberries OR 28 ounces frozen raspberries
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 8 teaspoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca
• 4-6 tablespoons water
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 9 inch double pie crust

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix together the raspberries, sugar, cornstarch, tapioca and water. Let sit while you prepare the pie crust.

Pour raspberries into pie crust and add 4 pats of butter, about 1 tablespoon each.

Put on top crust and crimp edges. Cut slits in the crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 mintues.

Cool, cut and enjoy!